Cardinal attacks PM over gay marriages

THE head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has launched a fierce attack on proposals to allow same-sex marriages, describing them as a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”.

In the strongest challenge to the government’s plans to legalise marriage for gay couples, Cardinal Keith O’Brien said the move was “madness”.

He accused ministers of being “staggeringly arrogant” by suggesting that churches could opt out of performing same-sex weddings.

His intervention comes as Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister and Liberal Democrat MP, is about to announce details of a consultation on allowing same-sex couples to marry. At present, gay couples can have their relationship recognised in law by a civil partnership.

“Since all the legal rights of marriage are already available to homosexual couples, it is clear that this proposal is not about rights, but rather is an attempt to redefine marriage for the whole of society